Senate passes Institute of Space Technology Bill 2010

ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Wednesday passed the Institute of Space Technology Bill 2010 by evolving consensus on establishing a higher education institute in the field of space technology.

Deputy Senate Chairman Jan Muhammad Jamali tabled the motion in the House, which was passed unanimously.

Although the Opposition did not oppose the bill, they nonetheless proposed amendments to the 43-clause bill, which the House leader ascertained would be incorporated later. The House was informed that the country needed such an institution, as many Pakistani students are not provided opportunities to study the subject abroad at foreign institutions.

Leader of the House Nayyar Bokhari said legislation had been due for a while as the ordinance was issued way back for establishing such an institution, for the purpose of giving incentives to Pakistani experts abroad, to come home and impart education to the country’s students.

Self-sufficient: Leader of the Opposition Wasim Sajjad said that such institutions were needed for getting at par with the West.

“Developed nations often seem reluctant to provide such technologies to countries like us, therefore, we need our own mechanism to prepare a force of technical experts”, he said.

He said the West is reluctant to pass on such technology and expertise to the developing world, to prevent it from benefiting from the knowledge.

Muslim umbrella: Sajjad proposed involving other Muslim countries in setting up such institutions, bringing together all the brilliant minds of the Muslim World under the same umbrella for developing the Muslim-states block. Pakistan should take the initiative and approach other Islamic countries as they have all the resources for successfully orchestrating such a project, he maintained. Lauding the amendments made by Sajjad, Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmed proposed to make ‘on-merit admissions’ mandatory at the proposed institution.

The house leader assured the senators the proposed amendments would be incorporated by the government.